


Of Course

by Juniper_Mason



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angels, Character Death, Demons, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Heaven, M/M, Series Finale, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-28 23:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5110073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juniper_Mason/pseuds/Juniper_Mason
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Dean….”<br/>“You said it yourself, Sammy.  Goodbye isn’t forever.  You’re my little brother.  We’re gonna see each other again some day.”  Castiel had been crying dry tears now.  His breathing turned to hyperventilating as the Winchester brothers said their goodbyes.  His blue eyes were red and sore but he didn’t care.<br/>“Sammy, now.”<br/>“But, Dean-“<br/>“You have to do it now.  I don’t know how much longer I can stay in control.  I don’t want the last thing I do on earth to be hurting you.  Please, Sam.  Please.”  Castiel wrapped his wings around his body as he tensed at Sam’s uneven voice.<br/>“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus….”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_She was engulfed by the explosion of light that erupted from the twisting, spiraling storm of clouds.  The Darkness had been defeated.  The gates of Hell had been closed._

Dean woke up with a sharp pain in his head. He sat up slowly, taking in the scene around him.  The grass that had once been embedded in the tainted dirt under their feet had been singed off, the trees knocked down and blown out into the distance.  Baby’s paint had been torn off by the debris, leaving her naked and bent, her windows demolished and tires deflated. From where he sat, Dean could see Sam stumble over to the skeleton and pick something up off of the ground, sticking it in his pocket.  Arms found their way to Dean’s torso, lifting him up gingerly.

“Cas?”  It was barely a whisper. 

“Hello, Dean.”  The hunter’s arms made their way around the angel, causing him to shift uncomfortably.  Something light brushed up against his forearms, tickling his burnt and calloused skin. He turned his head and came face to face with a pair of glorious black wings.  Each feather was finely groomed, the colour rich as though scribes had taken their time dipping each one in the most perfect ink. 

“When the Darkness was locked away, Heaven returned to its perfect state.  My Father has returned, and in doing so, restored them to their former state as a means of forgiveness.”

“Why can I see them?  Don’t get me wrong, Cas…they’re beautiful, but I was never able to see them before.  Why can I see them now?”  The hunter looked at the angel with confusion and longing.  Castiel didn’t need to say anything.  They way he looked into Dean’s eyes said it all.  More importantly, Dean could see his reflection in those sinfully blue orbs looking back at him.  He wanted to focus on the blue, but all he could see was the black in the watery reflection. 

“No….  Shit, no,” he croaked as he started to shake uncontrollably.  He didn’t feel any different than he had before.  In fact, he felt better than he had when the Darkness roamed free.

“I’m sorry, Dean.  You and the Darkness, you were bound in some way….  It was too powerful.  When it was locked away, your humanity went with it.”

“No.  No, I wont believe that.  I can still feel, I still feel my emotions.  I can feel the pain and the hurt and-“

“So can the other…demons.”  They both cringed at the word.  “They had just been lost for so long that they had become numb.”  Dean swallowed hard, his mind racing a mile a minute.  

“So what now?”  There was no answer from the angel.  “Cas, what now?”  Castiel brought a hand to Dean’s cheek and wiped away the tears that had begun to fall. 

“Now I hold you up until Sam gets here. Now I return to Heaven. Now I tell you that I love you, Dean Winchester.” 

“Cas.” The sob was gasped out by the older Winchester brother as his body became heavy and loose.  The strong arms of the angel held him up as he wept. This wasn’t fair. Everything was supposed to be right, now.  They were supposed to be able to live their lives without the fear of what hid in closets or under their beds. They were supposed to be able to hold each other at night and love freely, not be torn apart by whatever this was. They were supposed to be a family.

A new set of arms grabbed onto Dean as the angel let go and the smell of burning flannel filled Dean’s nose.

“Take care of him, Sam.  Please, take care of him for me.” 

 

~

 

The bunker was cold and lifeless. The Winchester brothers had cleared out their rooms prior to the battle, but had left the library shelves stocked with leather spines and folders from generations past. The kitchen had been emptied of any food that was left over and the dungeon had been hidden away once more. Bruce Wayne had officially left the Bat Cave.

Dean sat on the uncovered bed in what used to be his room.  He had spent an hour meticulously painting an all too familiar symbol on the floor in the middle of the room, and now he was staring at it, waiting for the right moment. With a heavy breath, he called for his brother and said one final prayer.  Sam froze in the doorway just as Castiel appeared in the back of the room.

“Dean, what are you doing?”

“This isn’t the way to live, Sam. Hell, I’m not really even living. This needs to be done.” Before his brother or angel could say anything, Dean took a step forward and entered the devil's trap. Castiel followed him, latching on to the broken man. 

“Dean….”

“It’s okay, Cas.”  One hand found the small of the angel’s back while the other made its way to the back of his head, fingers running through the messy, dark hair of the shorter man.  Dean looked at his brother. “Sam, I need you to be the one to do this.”

“Dean, no.”

“Sam.”  Sam had to lean against the doorframe to stay standing.  He watched as his brother caressed their friend’s cheek and kissed the top of his head.  “Will you be there, waiting for me when this is done?”  Castiel buried his head in Dean’s neck and muffled out a sob.

“Of course.  I’ll be waiting to race down to the pits and pull you back up. And when you’re freed, and you’re in Heaven, I’ll be there too.  Waiting for you.”

“At the end of the day my holy tax accountant is gonna come home to me?”

“I’ll always come for you, Dean Winchester.” Dean didn’t have the think about his actions.  He grabbed the lapels of Castiel’s trench coat and pulled him in the extra few inches so that their lips met.  The kiss was shaky and salty from their tears.  Dean didn’t care if he cried for Castiel.  He would turn back into the brave little soldier his father wanted him to be for Sam, but he would cry for Cas.  They pulled away and leaned their foreheads together, breathing heavily and yet quietly at the same time. Castiel brought his hand to where his mark once was on the hunter’s shoulder and squeezed lightly.

“I love you, Castiel, angel of the Lord.” The angel vanished room the trap, leaving the brothers alone.  He reappeared in the hallway, far enough way from the room to not see anything, but close enough to still hear.  Castiel collapsed onto the floor, hiding his head between his legs as he banged a fist against the wall and bawled.  His body was shaking, overcome with anxiety and nerves.

“Dean, I can’t do this.” 

“Yes you can, Sam.”  He could hear their voices so clearly it was as if he never left the room. 

“No, Dean, I wont do it.”

“Listen to me.  You?  You have a second chance at this living thing.  I don’t. And I’m okay with that. You know why?  Because I’ve done all that I could do.  The monsters are gone.  There’s nothing left for me to protect you from.  So you’re gonna do this, and then you’re gonna walk up those stairs and lock up the bunker.  You're gonna hold one last hunter's funeral and burn my body in the woods behind this place.  Then you're gonna leave and never come back.  You’re gonna go back to law school, find a girl, get married, become a hot-shot lawyer. You’re gonna be saving people and hunting things in the legal way now.  And at the end of the day, you’re gonna go home to your wife and 2.5 kids, a dog, a white picket fence, the whole shebang.  You’re gonna live a nice, long life and give your kids the childhood we never got to have.”

“Dean….”

“You said it yourself, Sammy. Goodbye isn’t forever. You’re my little brother. We’re gonna see each other again some day.” Castiel had been crying dry tears now. His breathing turned to hyperventilating as the Winchester brothers said their silent goodbyes.  His blue eyes were red and sore but he didn’t care.

“Sammy, now.”

“But, Dean-“

“You have to do it now.  I don’t know how much longer I can stay in control. I can feel this part of me taking over and I don’t want the last thing I do on earth to be hurting you.  Please, Sammy. Please.”  Castiel wrapped his wings around his body as he tensed at Sam’s uneven voice. 

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus….”

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, Jude.  Don’t make it bad. Take a sad song, and make it better.”

The first thing that Dean registered was his mother’s voice singing to him. The familiar lyrics of “Hey Jude” were tickling the air like a faint wind in her soft voice.  Mary Winchester’s kind eyes met his when he allowed them to open.

“Mom?” he asked, voice crackling and throat sore. 

“I’m here, sweetie.”  She took him into a hug, helping him sit up on his bed.  He returned the gesture, quivering as he did so. 

“Dean? Dean, I know it’s hard, believe me. I missed you so much, your brother, too. I would give anything to have you not be here right now-” 

“It’s not that.” Mary pulled back from the hug and looked at her son. She hadn’t changed a bit. Her smooth skin was still glowing, her elegant face was still framed by waves of wheat and sun, and her smile was the same smile Dean had seen every night when she tucked him in.

“This actually isn’t the first time I’ve died, and before you freak out, just hear me out.  I did it to save Sam.”

“And the rest of humanity.”  Dean’s head whipped around at the sound of the baritone voice.  Standing in the doorway was a messy-haired angel in a trench coat.

“Cas?” The angel’s smile could only be described as one of relieved sadness and an overwhelming joy.

“Hello, Dean.”  Dean looked back at his mother as he stood up from his childhood bed.  For a moment, he was frozen, but in the next he was running to close the short distance between him and the angel.  He reached the shorter man and immediately grabbed his face between his hands, pulling him into a chaste kiss.  Castiel put his hands on Dean’s biceps, giving one a little squeeze that caused Dean to flinch.  When he processed the pain, he hesitantly looked at Cas. 

“I know you were sentimental about it….” Dean slipped off his leather jacket and lifted the sleeve of his tee shirt to reveal a raised handprint on his freckled skin. He had to bite his bottom lip to control the smile that was spreading across his face. 

“How long did it take you?  To find me?”

“What does it matter?  You’re here now, free from Hell, and whether it took me one day or one million, I wouldn’t give up.” Dean went in for another kiss, sparkling forest eyes stinging with fresh tears of joy locked on plump, chapped lips.  He couldn’t help but smile. He was standing in his childhood home, holding the angel he loved, his mother off to their right and his father walking towards them.  Dean’s eyes widened in sudden fear and realization.  John didn’t stop walking or make any comments as he passed. He sat down next to his wife and put an arm around her shoulders, kissing her forehead. 

“Don’t look at me like that, boy.  If you really think that I’m gonna sit here and judge you for being in love, then clearly part of your brain is still stuck in Hell.”  Dean had to process what his father was saying. Was he accepting this? Him and Castiel? John Winchester, the man who had grown up in the traditional way, raised by closed-minded parents and trained his own children to be robotic soldiers, was sitting Dean’s childhood home, in his bedroom, telling him that he was okay with his son being with a man?

“Dad?”

“Dean, you’re my son.  I’m going to love you no matter what.  Besides, we’ve known Cas for a while.”

“What?” Dean asked, trying to blink away the confusion.  Mary chuckled.

“I always told you that angels were watching over you, Dean.”

“Cas, why in God’s name didn’t you tell me you knew my parents? And you!” he Dean exclaimed, pointing to his father.  “I thought you were in Hell!”

“He was, until recently.  When the gates were closed, all innocent souls were released to Heaven. In the few days between the ‘New Beginning’, as it is now being called, and your death, I was stationed at the gates, guiding souls with other angels that were still trusted. I had met Mary years before I first saved you, so when I saw your father, I took a special interest.” Dean sat down on the edge of the bed, fingers running through his hair and over his face.  John laughed and slapped his knee as he stood up, taking Mary’s hand and leading her out of the room.  He only paused for a moment to ask Dean how the Impala was doing.

That night, Dean lay wrapped in Castiel’s arms.  Their naked bodies were pressed against each other in the heated post-orgasmic bliss of their bond.  Castiel had his hand placed over the mark on Dean’s shoulder as Dean tenderly ran his knuckles up and down Castiel’s spine, wings invisible yet omnipresent. 

“Cas?”

“Hm?” was the only reply he got- a muffled noise against his chest.

“How’s Sam doing?”

“Sam is wonderful.  He did what you told him to.  He went back to college, got married.  They have a son, he and his wife.”

“Good. That’s good.  A lot of time has passed I guess.”

“Five years.” 

“Five years?  Cas, you were fighting for me in Hell for five years?”

“Yes. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. Despite what my brothers believed, I did not fall in love with humanity.  I fell in love with you, Dean.  You and only you. So I broke through the gates of Hell not once, but twice.  And I spent a collective six years, never stopping to rest, never thinking of turning back or giving up, in the fires looking for you.  My Father gives life to everyone with their story planned out. You were mine, and I am yours. You were my beginning and I was there for your end.  But just as he wrote those stories for your time on Earth, he has written our story for Heaven. You, Dean Winchester, are my life. I do not need to breathe, and yet every moment I am with you I feel air entering my lungs, just as how every moment we are apart, I feel as though I am suffocating.  I would never be able to continue if you were not with me. That is why I gladly raised you from the pits.  I will always come for you.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Of course.”

Dean nuzzled the top of Castiel’s hair, his arms strengthening their grip around his torso.  He could feel the angel beginning to fade next to him.  Funny how angels were more human with their need to eat and sleep in Heaven than they were on Earth.  Dean held his beloved as he thought about how blessed he truly was.  He closed his eyes and slipped into a comforting slumber, breath syncing with the angel’s.  In his dreams, he could hear his father from their earlier conversation.

“She’s only a car, Dean.  Family is what matters.  Against family, the car isn’t important.”

~

Oh, but she was important.  If one were to pick up Carver Edlund’s final book in the _Supernatural_ series, they would find out just how important she was.  

“On April 21, 1967, the 100 millionth GM vehicle rolled off the line at the plant in Janesville -- a blue two-door Caprice.

"There was a big ceremony, speeches. The lieutenant governor even showed up. Three days later, another car rolled off that same line. No one gave two craps about her. But they should have, because this 1967 Chevrolet Impala would turn out to be the most important car -- no, the most important _object_ \-- in pretty much the whole universe…. 

“The Impala, of course, has all the things other cars have... and a few things they don't. But none of that stuff's important. This is the stuff that's important. The army man that Sam crammed in the ashtray - it's still stuck there. The Legos that Dean shoved into the vents -- to this day, heat comes on and they can hear 'em rattle. These are the things that make the car theirs -- really theirs. Even when Dean rebuilt her from the ground up, he made sure all these little things stayed, 'cause it's the blemishes that make her beautiful....”

She was important because, for their short time in the hectic, chaotic world of the supernatural, she was their home- their safe haven.  She was the start of a new generation of hunters, and with her end, came the end of living in fear and in the shadows of monsters.  

Ending are indeed, always difficult.  Some of them may seem unforgiving, while others are easily guessed. Some ending are nothing but a new beginning, starting with the hero waking up to his family, finding true love, and settling down, just like he had promised his brother he would do years and years ago, and letting his angel save him.  Others are accompanied by the shell of an old muscle car that was once called “home” by a father and his two sons, sitting in an abandoned field, rusting away. But the best kind of ending, is the kind that isn’t an ending at all.  This is the end of a day, with the promise of a new start with the rising sun the next morning.  For five years, Sam Winchester welcomed this kind of ending into his life.  He had made a promise, and he kept it.  Now, he ends his day by kissing his wife as he gets into bed. He ends his day by taking their dog for a walk to the park.  He ends his day by lifting his son, Dean, onto his shoulders and running around their back yard after dinner. 

Sam Winchester begins and ends every day by getting into an environmentally friendly car and glancing at the picture of him, his brother, and his parents- the one that once belonged to Dean, which he now keeps on the visor. 

Sam Winchester begins and ends every day by listening to the rattle of the army man and Legos in the cup holder that he had taken from the wreckage of the battle all those years ago. 

Sam Winchester begins and ends every day smiling, because he knows he will see his brother again one day. 


End file.
